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NEWSLINESSlow start to
Tassie swordfish
season
With a swordfish caught in late January
and several others lost, this year’s Tassie
swordfish season seemed to be off to a
promising start. Expectations ran high for the
inaugural Eaglehawk Neck Tasmanian Broadbill
Championships in early March, especially with
two of the three competition days coinciding with
calm settled weather. Sure enough, there was
plenty of action, with many hook-ups reported
on both days. However, a large percentage of
the strikes were either mako or blue sharks.
Three swordfish were landed over the two-day
weather window, ranging from 147 to 208kg.
The news of swordfish inspired a flurry of
activity as anglers organised their gear and
crew for the next available weather window,
but unfortunately that took quite some time
to appear. Cold front after cold front rolled
over the state for the remainder of March,
with Tasmania experiencing some of the worst
autumn conditions in years. Opportunities to fish
the swordfish grounds were few and far between.
The father and son team of Mason and Daniel
Paull braved the trying conditions off St Helens
and were rewarded with their first swordfish of
the season, a 180kg beauty that was tagged
after a short battle on 60kg tackle. The Paulls
and a handful of other anglers caught additional
swordfish before the end of March, but the early
season catch rate was low in comparison to the
past few years. Hopefully, the best is still to come.- Jonah Yick
While big game fishing around the world aboard his custom sailing catamaran
Offshore Hunter, Norwegian adventurer Morten Ruud met a French family
aboard the boat anchored next to them in the Marquesas Islands.
Their 13-year-old son, Robin, was an eager fisherman and keen to catch a marlin, so
they took him out the next day.
Heading out from Tahuata, they found a lot of bait and bird life, and Robin landed a
24kg yellowfin soon after. Then around midday a large blue marlin slammed the right
outrigger lure and rapidly bounded off towards the horizon. Morton called it at least
230kg as he strapped Robin into a Black Magic harness and clipped it to the 60kg
stand-up outfit.
Robin’s blue took a lot of line, even withOffshore Hunterbacking-down at eight knots.
They’d chased it for 1.4nm before it finally settled, at which time Robin went into a
blitz, cranking line like a pro. After 90 minutes they had the leader and brought what
they suddenly realised was a huge marlin alongside. Robin was exhausted, but happy as
never before. His fish was extremely fat, and with a 330cm short-length was estimated
to weigh more than 400kg!
But the day was not over yet... An hour later they missed a strike, then hooked
another big blue only minutes after that. Emil Ruud soon had the leader and secured
an estimated 340kg blue for Petter Baarstad.
For his first day of marlin fishing, Robin couldn’t have wished for anything more.Robin wanted a marlin
As a guest on his
first day of marlin
fishing, 13-year-
old Robin Mory
struck the jackpot
with a 400kg blue
marlin aboard
Morten Ruud’s
Offshore Hunter
in the Marquesas
Islands.Daniel and Mason
Paull tagged and
released three
swordfish off St
Helens in Tasmania
during March,
including this 85kg
fish and another
estimated at 180kg.